


The Red String Theory

by kogimika53



Series: Strings of Fate [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-17 16:25:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10597791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kogimika53/pseuds/kogimika53
Summary: Hanamaki never believed in the red string theory.Yes, he was aware that his parents were soulmates and had known ever since childhood that they were destined to be lovers and partners for life, and that his older sister was going six years strong with her soulmate.But they were all just coincidences; fortunate coincidences, as he liked to say. Hanamaki was a realist; he didn't believe in destiny and predetermined fate and all that shilly-shallying nonsensical romantic unsupported theories. He believed that a man's destiny lay in his own hands and that it was totally up to the person to decide how they wanted their life to play out, and didn't think at all that the red strings controlled who one as to marry. While there were many soulmate couples he had seen, he did have a couple of friends whose relationships with their respective soulmates hadn't ended too well; as such, Hanamaki upheld his stance, which he had firmly stuck to ever since he was a child, that anyone in a relationship didn't necessarily have to be soulmates for the best relationship.





	1. "I'm Hanamaki Takahiro. Yes, my hair is pink; no, I did not dye it. Uhh, one interesting thing about myself - I don't believe in the red string theory."

**Author's Note:**

> AU in which soulmates are connected by a (stereotypical) red string of fate and people are able to see others' strings except their own, in which their own string only becomes visible once they have met their soulmate (i.e. the other person to whom the other end of the string is attached to)
> 
> I know there're a lot of fics out there where soulmates are the best-suited partners for each other, but I personally believe that you don't have to be soulmates or connected by the red string of fate to have the best relationship. As such, here is my take on that, in the form of a MatsuHana fic.

Hanamaki never believed in the red string theory.

Yes, he was aware that his parents were soulmates and had known ever since childhood that they were destined to be lovers and partners for life, and that his older sister was going six years strong with her soulmate. Everywhere he went he saw soulmates walking hand in hand with a thread of faintly-glowing red fabric (was it fabric? it looked so intangibly real) hanging from their interlocked pinkies and PDAing in public, and he knew plenty of his friends who had already established relationships with their soulmates.

But they were all just coincidences; fortunate coincidences, as he liked to say. Hanamaki was a realist; he didn't believe in destiny and predetermined fate and all that shilly-shallying nonsensical romantic unsupported theories. He believed that a man's destiny lay in his own hands and that it was totally up to the person to decide how they wanted their life to play out, and didn't think at all that the red strings controlled who one was to marry. While there were many soulmate couples he had seen, he did have a couple of friends whose relationships with their respective soulmates hadn't ended too well; as such, Hanamaki upheld his stance, which he had firmly stuck to ever since he was a child, that anyone in a relationship didn't necessarily have to be soulmates for the best relationship.

His family, on the other hand, were ardent believers of the supernatural and destiny and fate. His sister called him "pessimistic" (honestly, the denoted adjective didn't even apply to this context?), saying that this reasoning was just an excuse to cover up the fact that he would probably never find his own destined lover; his parents, employing more tact and kindness in addressing him on his stance, encouraged him to stay "open-minded" and assured him that his soulmate just hadn't come yet. Hanamaki often discarded these comments, though; firstly, he was, and always had been, an obstinate person, and wasn't about to change his beliefs any time soon; and secondly, how were these even related to what he felt? He wasn't being salty about not having found "the one" yet, and neither did he disapprove of soulmates; he just believed that soulmates didn't necessarily have the best outcome in relationships all the time.

He'd been through a couple of relationships in middle school, but neither had been his soulmate, nor had any of the relationships lasted for more than half a year, and so far his red string hadn't appeared yet. Hanamaki had never considered himself straight; he had known since fifth grade that he was pansexual and proud, and his family was totally cool with it, so he kept his choices open and was completely fine with dating boys, girls, transfolk - heck, anyone who was a living human bean and an inhabitant of the wonderful water-filled planet known as Earth. 

So when he walked into class 4 on his first day of high school at the age of 15, he wasn't surprised that his red string didn't shimmer into sight at all; after all, it hadn't manifested itself for the past fifteen years anyhow. He was sorted to the back of the class, being rather tall for his age, and took his place in the last row, just behind a stockily-built boy with spiky hair and dark-green eyes. As usual, the teacher called for self-introductions, and the students went to the front to state their name, one interesting thing about themself, blah blah blah. When it was Hanamaki's turn, he swaggered to the front, cleared his throat several times and recited the introduction which he had used at the beginning of every new year for the past seven years.

"I'm Hanamaki Takahiro. Yes, my hair is pink; no, I did  _not_ dye it. Uhh, one interesting thing about myself - I don't believe in the red string theory."

At his last statement, a murmur went through the students seated in front of him. The red string theory, as coined by society, was a popular belief among the majority of the population, particularly the teenagers; finding one who didn't believe in the red string theory was about as rare as, for lack of a better comparison, finding a four-leaved clover. He scratched the back of his neck, bowed slightly and added a brief "I hope to work with all of you" before he returned to his seat. Crossing his arms and placing his chin on them, he listened to the remaining students introduce themselves, nodding off slightly as the teacher went through the list of administrative issues to settle.

While they were filling in the form for health conditions and whatnots (to which Hanamaki promptly ticked all the "no" boxes, kicked his feet back and rested his head on his arms against the back of the wall behind him, his chair tilted precariously at the edge), the spiky-haired boy in front of him, whom Hanamaki remembered as Iwaizumi Hajime (his name being particularly memorable owing to his self-introduction earlier in which he had proclaimed himself a hardcore Godzilla fan, and whose bag, Hanamaki could now see, was littered with Godzilla keychains, badges and merchandise), leaned back in his chair.

"You don't believe in the red string theory either, huh?" he muttered. He had a rather deep voice for his age, like Hanamaki, that reeked of manliness.

"Nope," Hanamaki replied, popping the "-pe". "I'm a realist, I never really believed in fate controlling my life and that sort of shit."

"Nice," the stranger rumbled. "I'm Iwaizumi Hajime, as you know, and I'd just like to inform that the other end of your red string just so happens to be attached to my best friend."

Though genuinely confused as to why a boy whom he'd met not one hour ago was divulging this sort of information to him, Hanamaki nodded anyways. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Yeah, uh, he has a rather - disgusting personality," Iwaizumi added. "Just - keep that in mind in case you ever want to date him."

"I like how you automatically assume that I'm cool with guys."

"I didn't actually know if you were straight or not, but sure."

"I'm pan, actually. Pansexual and proud."

From that day onwards, Hanamaki and Iwaizumi were firm friends. Despite their seemingly different personalities, most notoriously the clash between Hanamaki's "dank memeness" and Iwaizumi's "down-to-earth, no-nonsense intolerance for memes ~~that died in 2016~~ ", both shared a common stance in rejecting notions of fate-predetermined lives, and later discovered that they shared a mutual passion for volleyball. The two of them immediately enrolled in the volleyball club and were accepted promptly.

Up till then, however, despite having frequently discussed the mysterious best friend of Iwaizumi's with an irrevocably disgusting personality, Hanamaki had never actually met the boy before. For all Iwaizumi's talk about his terribly good looks, his horrifyingly womanising tendencies and his exceedingly whiny habits, Hanamaki was interested to meet his soulmate.

"So when do I get to meet this disgusting best friend of yours?" he asked casually as they sat in the canteen eating lunch before their first day of club activities. "It's been a month since we've bonded in our bitching sessions about him and yet I've never even met the subject of our interesting conversations."

"You'll see him soo - " As Iwaizumi opened his mouth to reply, a stranger strode up to their table to talk to Iwaizumi.

"Yo Iwaizumi, by any chance do you have those physics no - " He stopped mid-sentence, realising that he had interrupted Iwaizumi, and it was at this moment that Hanamaki chose to look up from his profiteroles at the newcomer.

And his jaw dropped.

If this was the best friend with the disgusting personality that Iwaizumi had been talking about, then he was certainly a good-looking fellow - a very, very pulchritudinous boy indeed. His most distinctive physical trait was his eyebrows - those hideously caterpillar-like eyebrows that hovered over his half-lidded, grey eyes somehow gave him a strangely-alluring look to him. The student was ridiculously tall for his age, at least six foot tall despite being (as Hanamaki inferred from his request to borrow, he presumed, Iwaizumi's physics notes) a first-year, with a gangly build that suggested great strength despite the relatively lean contours of his body. His upper lip was slightly protruded; evidently, combined with his caterpillar half-lidded eyes, the heavens (as Hanamaki so rarely invoked) had granted him a beautiful resting bitch face.

Hanamaki was acutely aware than he had custard cream dribbling down the sides of his mouth as the boy in front of him stared quizzically at him.

"Oh, you two don't know each other right?" Iwaizumi suddenly said, and Hanamaki was jolted back to the real world. He quickly wiped his messy mouth with the packaging of the profiteroles as Iwaizumi continued, "This is Matsukawa Issei from class 5. He and I are in the same class for physics, chemistry and geography. I've been meaning to introduce the two of you for a while- "

"Here come dat boi," Hanamaki blurted out, unsure of what to say, and quickly pulled a face. That was  _not_ how he wanted to make a first impression during a first meeting with an exceptionally delectable boy, but Matsukawa simply grinned and replied, "O shit waddup."

"Holy shit, you too?" Hanamaki instantly burst out, taken aback at Matsukawa's reply. In response, Matsukawa turned to the side, and tapped a keychain of the infamous unicycling green frog.

"I'm Iwaizumi's daily dose of outdated memes and dank shit," he replied, and Iwaizumi placed a hand to his forehead. "I've got all the memes in my phone, saved in separate folders and classfied since I was in fifth grade. Say, who'd win between one trillion lions and the sun?"

"Not again," Iwaizumi muttered, but Hanamaki and Matsukawa had immediately started an excited conversation on the topic of one trillion lions facing off against the sun.

Hanamaki was a realist; he didn't believe in destiny and predetermined fate and all that shilly-shallying nonsensical romantic unsupported theories, but he couldn't deny that he could feel himself developing feelings for Matsukawa, or "Mattsun" as he insisted on being called. He was hilarious, absolutely hilarious, and as much of a dank memer as he was. He wasn't at all the womanising, childish prat that Iwaizumi had complained of having tolerated for the past ten years of his life.

"Dude, I can't believe you're my soulmate," he babbled without thinking, half-expecting Matsukawa to reply with a "I know right?", but only actually realised his exact implications when a confused expression came over Matsukawa's face and he said, "I am?"

"Wait - aren't you Iwaizumi's childhood best friend?" Hanamaki looked down at his hand, and was surprised to see that no glowing red thread had appeared at all. He looked up at Matsukawa's hands, and was ( ~~highkey~~  lowkey) dismayed to see that he could see Matsukawa's red string extend past him and out of the door.

"Iwaizumi and I literally met, like, this year," Matsukawa answered confusedly.

"But then who's Iwaizumi's childhood best friend - "

it was at that moment that a second stranger walked up to Iwaizumi again, a boy with wavy chocolate-brown hair, lively brown eyes to match and a decidedly pretty face. He slung his arm around Iwaizumi and chirped a "Yaho Iwa-chan!"

" _This_ is your soulmate," Iwaizumi said. His expression held a strange hint of smugness, as if he had been waiting for this to happen. "The shittiest piece of trash ever born into this world, the subject of our bitching sessions, regrettably, my childhood best friend - Oikawa Tooru."

And as Oikawa blinked confusedly, waved at Hanamaki and said "Yaho, Makki-chan!", a glowing red piece of string suddenly flashed into sight, connecting Hanamaki's pinky finger with Oikawa's, and the only thoughts that flashed through Hanamaki's mind was "fuck this shit I'm out" as Matsukawa looked sympathetically at him.


	2. "I want to tell Mattsun I'm gay for him and not Oikawa even though we're not soulmates but how do I nicely tell Oikawa I'm not gay for him but for Mattsun even though we're soulmates?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanamaki never believed in the red string theory.
> 
> So when his red thread of fate, after having eluded his sight for fifteen-and-a-quarter fucking years, flashed into sight in the most infuriatingly casual manner possible the moment Oikawa Tooru waved and threw up a peace sign with an annoying "Yaho Makki-chan!" in possibly the gayest, most annoying voice he had ever heard (no, the two adjectives were not correlated to each other), Hanamaki had absolutely every right for "fuck this shit I'm out" to go through his mind.
> 
> Of course, he staunchly maintained his stance that soulmates did not necessarily have to spend the rest of their life together, which was frankly a huge relief given that from the obnoxiously chirpy tone that Oikawa had used Hanamaki was one-hundred-million percent sure that he did not want to hear the words "Yaho Makki-chan" ever uttered to him from this man every morning for the rest of his life, an equally-disconcerting vision of Oikawa wearing a frilly Kiss the Cook apron and a wide smile across his unfairly-pretty face flashing across his mind.
> 
> It was just - he was highkey lowkey disappointed at how - cringey his soulmate was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for updating late, a lot of things popped up over the weekend and I just managed to finish this. It's probably not as funny as the previous one, but I'm working on the third chapter and I hope to upload it as soon as I can. Enjoy!

Hanamaki never believed in the red string theory.

Yes, he was aware that his parents were soulmates and had known ever since childhood that they were destined to be lovers and partners for life, and that his older sister was going six years strong with her soulmate. Everywhere he went he saw soulmates walking hand in hand with a thread of faintly-glowing red fabric (was it fabric? it looked so intangibly real) hanging from their interlocked pinkies and PDAing in public, and he knew plenty of his friends who had already established relationships with their soulmates.

But they were all just coincidences; fortunate coincidences, as he liked to say. Hanamaki was a realist; he didn't believe in destiny and predetermined fate and all that shilly-shallying nonsensical romantic unsupported theories. He believed that a man's destiny lay in his own hands and that it was totally up to the person to decide how they wanted their life to play out, and didn't think at all that the red strings controlled who one as to marry. While there were many soulmate couples he had seen, he did have a couple of friends whose relationships with their respective soulmates hadn't ended too well; as such, Hanamaki upheld his stance, which he had firmly stuck to ever since he was a child, that anyone in a relationship didn't necessarily have to be soulmates for the best relationship.

So when his red thread of fate, after having eluded his sight for fifteen-and-a-quarter fucking years, flashed into sight in the most infuriatingly casual manner possible the moment Oikawa Tooru waved and threw up a peace sign with an annoying "Yaho Makki-chan!" in possibly the gayest, most annoying voice he had ever heard (no, the two adjectives were not correlated to each other), Hanamaki had absolutely every right for "fuck this shit I'm out" to go through his mind.

Of course, he staunchly maintained his stance that soulmates did  _not_ necessarily have to spend the rest of their life together, which was frankly a huge relief given that from the obnoxiously chirpy tone that Oikawa had used Hanamaki was one-hundred-million percent sure that he did  _not_ want to hear the words "Yaho Makki-chan" ever uttered to him from this man every morning for the rest of his life, an equally-disconcerting vision of Oikawa wearing a frilly Kiss the Cook apron and a wide smile across his unfairly-pretty face flashing across his mind.

It was just - he was  ~~highkey~~  lowkey disappointed at how - cringey his soulmate was. 

Oikawa peered quizzically into his face. "So you're Hanamaki Takahiro," he mused. "If you didn't already know, I'm Oikawa Tooru!" He flashed another peace sign, and his face suddenly contorted as he scrutinised his hand, as if suddenly noticing the appearance of his red string, and his smile miraculously widened, given how close his face was to being ripped in half considering how wide it was being stretched by the already-large smile pulling it across.

"So you're my soulmate!" he continued brightly. 

"So he's your soulmate," Iwaizumi repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"So he's your soulmate," Matsukawa echoed.

 _So he's my soulmate_ , Hanamaki didn't say.

"You're supposed to say 'so you're my soulmate'," Oikawa said, abruptly shoving his face into Hanamaki's. "Don't break the streak,  _soulmate_." He grinned and tapped Hanamaki's nose playfully.

_Oh god._

Screw his soulmate being just cringey. He was irrevocably, exceedingly, annoyingly, fucking cringey, bolded and font size 400. Like, who the fuck nicknames someone they just met regardless of soulmate status? Also, "Makki-chan?" That was so 2009, no one had called him that since he was seven except for his older sister, but that was different, she was an asshat he was obliged to spend the rest of his life with.

"I know you're my soulmate, but that doesn't mean you have the privilege to come within the 10cm radii of my face," Hanamaki said. The boy's breath positively reeked of a mixture of milk bread, chocolate milk and tonkatsu sauce, and the stench was so overwhelming that he couldn't breath.

"Maybe you shouldn't have broken the streak in the first place," Matsukawa piped up, and Hanamaki aimed a kick at him. Oikawa was nodding enthusiastically and giving him the googly eyes, shoving his face into Hanamaki's as far as he could without actually kissing him. The breath Hanamaki could tolerate. The googly eyes he could not.

"So you're my soulmate," he muttered, seeing as Oikawa refused to move the fuck away from his face until he gave him what he wanted. Oikawa beamed triumphantly and finally moved away, and there was a sound like a plunger being removed as Hanamaki released the breath he had been holding.

"Well, I guess if we're soulmates, we should get to know everything about each other," he said, plopping himself into the seat next to Hanamaki. "Iwa-chan and I were from Kitagawa Daiichi, where together we were the best setter-ace duo of the team! I even won the Best Setter Award in school! Hey, do you think I'll be official setter when the senpais graduate? Ah, do I sound too egoistic? Sorry sorry - what position are you? Iwa-chan's going to be the  _best_ ace - "

"Stop harrassing the poor guy, Shittykawa," Iwaizumi cut in, scowling at the bright-eyed boy who had been babbling on about volleyball. "You're making him uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable" was an understatement; "irrevocably blur and stupidly dazed" would have suited him better, judging from the hideously-contorted expression upon Hanamaki's face, nostrils flared and bottom lip jutted out. 

"You're uglifying his face even more, it won't be good for the wrinkles when he's older; might even get crow's feet at the tender age of fifteen," Matsukawa added.

"Thanks, Mattsun," Hanamaki replied sarcastically, raising a non-existent eyebrow at him (yes, his eyebrows were sadly lacking in comparison with Matsukawa's magnificent caterpillar specimens). "Yeah, I play volleyball; maybe you'll be official setter when the senpais graduate. Yes, you sound very egoistic, I'm a wing spiker, and of  _course_ your dear Iwa-chan's - " his eyes darted over to Iwaizumi, who mouthed "shut up" "- going to be your precious ace."

"...you're being sarcastic, aren't you."

"How could you tell," Hanamaki drawled. This only made Oikawa pout even more, and Hanamaki finally mustered the courage to push him back. He didn't want to be so unceremoniously smooched in the middle of the canteen just before their first day of club activities.

* * *

As the semester progressed and Hanamaki got to know his soulmate better, he came to discover that Oikawa Tooru was as irrevocably, exceedingly, annoyingly, fucking cringey, bolded and font size 400, as he had seemed. If there was anything that he loved even more than volleyball, it was aliens. The boy was just as avid a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, space, any space shows and anime you could name, as Iwaizumi was of Godzilla, and his bag was practically more Star Wars than bag. Asides from that, he also had an unhealthy obsession with milk bread (quite literally, given how fattening milk bread could be), and never went a day without munching on the milk-cream-filled pastry with milk cream smearing every corner of his mouth. But perhaps the most annoying thing about Oikawa Tooru, putting aside the aliens and milk bread, was the fangirls.

_Especially the fangirls._

By the fourth month in the first semester, Oikawa had miraculously obtained his very own fan club. He was born with a very pretty face, and had "J-pop idol looks", as Matsukawa once said, and no doubt it attracted the attention of many girls in school. It was tolerable enough that everywhere they walked girls called out "Oikawa-san!" and waved enthusiastically at him, or came up to talk to him, et cetera et cetera, but it got worse when they started to turn up at volleyball practice, cheering his name loudly and distracting the rest of the players in the middle of practice matches; Oikawa wasn't even a starting member, was it necessary to scream at every simple pushing-his-hair-back and stretch he did?

However, Hanamaki also came to discover that despite his terribly good looks, his horrifyingly womanising tendencies, his exceedingly whiny habits and his status as the shittiest piece of trash ever born into this world, Oikawa Tooru was staunchly loyal, diligently hardworking, earnestly sincere and, admittedly, a lovable piece of trash. Even though he often talked about the attention he received, and enjoyed comparing his popularity with the girls to Hanamaki's, he never came off as arrogant (though he did border on boastfulness at times). He sincerely appreciated the girls' attention, and was always gracious to them, no matter how tired or annoyed he was. Furthermore, Hanamaki could see that in time Oikawa  _could_ become official setter for the team, given his natural talent and his hardworking personality (like, he was only first-year yet he already stayed back after practices to work on his serves).

In time, Hanamaki came to regard Oikawa, Iwaizumi and Matsukawa as his best friends. Despite hailing from differently classes (Hanamaki and Iwaizumi from class 4, Matsukawa from 5 and Oikawa from 6), they spent nearly every ounce of free school time together, and often occupied the school roof during lunch time, exchanging memes  ~~that should have died in 2016~~  and bits of food from each other's bentos. Hanamaki thoroughly enjoyed the company of his three cronies, particularly Matsukawa.  _Especially_ Matsukawa. The two of them had a penchant for memes in general and tormenting Iwaizumi with memes that should have died in 2016, namely Evil Kermit, Pepe the Frog and Harambe, and were so similar that by the end of the first semester they became "Mattsun and Makki", not simply "Mattsun" or "Makki".

With each day that passed, Hanamaki found himself more and more attracted to Matsukawa. He was deadpanly humorous, considerate and a great confidant. He, too, as Hanamaki later discovered, didn't care for the notion of the red string theory, and that lifted Hanamaki's hopes of quite possibly, though highly unlikely on the whole, getting together with Matsukawa eventually. 

It could not be denied that Hanamaki was decidedly in love with Matsukawa. His eyes shone whenever they were together and his memes were always at their dankest in the company of the bushy-eyebrowed boy. Even the school shipped them together, having coined the name "Matsuhana" for the duo  ~~courtesy of Oikawa~~ ; there were several people who even thought the two were together, and the majority of their friends were baffled as to why they weren't soulmates, given their compatibility with one another. But when it came to the issue of compatibility, Hanamaki's spirits always sank slightly; mainly because of Oikawa.

From the moment they met, Oikawa had already taken spatial liberty in pushing himself into Hanamaki's comfort zone, mostly because of their soulmate status. However, Oikawa tended to be exceptionally touchy and clingy when it came to Hanamaki. He enjoyed latching himself onto Hanamaki whenever they were together, be it jumping on him from behind, placing an arm around his shoulders or waist, or just pushing his face very, very close to Hanamaki's with that awful milk-bread-chocolate-milk-and-tonkatsu-sauce breath of his, and Hanamaki was starting to suspect that Oikawa himself had developed feelings for him.

Now, Hanamaki never believed in the red string theory. Yes, he didn't believe in destiny and predetermined fate and all that shilly-shallying nonsensical romantic unsupported theories. He believed that a man's destiny lay in his own hands and that it was totally up to the person to decide how they wanted their life to play out, and didn't think at all that the red strings controlled who one as to marry. While there were many soulmate couples he had seen, he did have a couple of friends whose relationships with their respective soulmates hadn't ended too well; as such, Hanamaki upheld his stance, which he had firmly stuck to ever since he was a child, that anyone in a relationship didn't necessarily have to be soulmates for the best relationship.

Nevertheless, he felt a tinge of guilt towards the lack of reciprocal feelings that he felt for Oikawa. Soulmate as he may be, the feelings he harboured towards Oikawa were purely bromantic and he honestly couldn't see himself dating him at all. Despite that, he had no idea how to approach Oikawa and reject him when the latter hadn't even confessed to him at all; and he certainly couldn't bring himself to confide in Matsukawa on this matter, so he brought the matter up to Iwaizumi.

"Just tell him," was the immediate response he got, and boy did it get on his nerves. He had spent the past ten minutes ranting to Iwaizumi about the whole conflicting love triangle-ish theory he had (a theory that would normally have clashed with his beliefs and which he, thirty years later, would probably cringe at), and Iwaizumi rose to the occasion with a very short, very (in Hanamaki's opinion) insensitive "just tell him". So it was no surprise that Hanamaki had replied with an "are you fucking kidding". He was lowkey insulted that he had wasted so much time rambling only to receive a three-word-long answer.

"Look, the only way you're going to solve this problem is to address Oikawa directly on the matter," Iwaizumi explained practically. "You don't even know if he actually likes you in that way yet. I thought you were more pragmatic than this, and would have at least confirmed his feelings for you."

"Yeah, well, not like I can ask him can I?" Hanamaki replied, and Iwaizumi facepalmed.

"Fine," he said, "if you don't want to ask him first, just straight up tell him you don't like him that way even though you're soulmates. Take the direct approach and risk embarrassing yourself."

"Yeah, but I want to tell Mattsun I'm gay for him and not Oikawa even though we're not soulmates but how do I nicely tell Oikawa I'm not gay for him but for Mattsun even though we're soulmates?"

Iwaizumi facedesked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry if the second chapter wasn't as good as the first one; that's one of my perpetual fears whenever writing fics in chapters/series. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed this second chapter!


	3. "I think you're the hottest hunk of meme trash I've ever seen and I'm totally gay for you even though I'm pansexual and proud and red string theory believers would usually decree I be gay for Oikawa, and I hope you're gay for me too"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanamaki was by no means a romantic person at all. He could tolerate shoujo manga and cringey cheesy fluffy romance, but his inner memer did not in any way see himself in a romantic fluffy relationship; neither did his inner memer permit him to bouts of shoujo fluff and KYAAAAAs and awkward confessions of the sort.
> 
> So normally there should have been no reason as to why he was pacing back and forth outside class 5 on the last day of his first year, rubbing his hands together nervously and murmuring the fateful words of confession under his breath while the students of class 5 gushed out of the class like tap water when someone presses their finger to the tap but the water that manages to get through sprays out annoyingly and hits them straight in the face like life hit Hanamaki in the face with Matsukawa Issei and Oikawa Tooru.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sneezing and dying of sinus but hope you enjoy this last chapter!

Hanamaki was by no means a romantic person at all. He could tolerate shoujo manga and cringey cheesy fluffy romance, but his inner memer did  _not_ in any way see himself in a romantic fluffy relationship; neither did his inner memer permit him to bouts of shoujo fluff and KYAAAAAs and awkward confessions of the sort.

So normally there should have been no reason as to why he was pacing back and forth outside class 5 on the last day of his first year, rubbing his hands together nervously and murmuring the fateful words of confession under his breath while the students of class 5 gushed out of the class like tap water when someone presses their finger to the tap but the water that manages to get through sprays out annoyingly and hits them straight in the face like life hit Hanamaki in the face with Matsukawa Issei and Oikawa Tooru. Gods, why wasn't Matsukawa even out yet?

"Hey Mattsun," Hanamaki mumbled, "I think you're the hottest hunk of meme trash I've ever seen and I'm totally gay for you even though I'm pansexual and proud and red string theory believers would usually decree I be gay for Oikawa, and I hope you're gay for me too though red string theory believers decree you be gay or straight or whatever for your other soulmate - hey Mattsun, I think you're - "

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Hanamaki yelped and actually  _jumped_ a good 10cm into the air. Matsukawa was standing in front of him, one caterpillar-like eyebrow raised quizzically at him, and it made Hanamaki scream internally as he realised that now was the moment of truth that would determine whether Matsukawa was gay for him too or not.

"H-hey Mattsun," he stammered out, and mentally facedesked; his inner memer did not permit him to bouts of shoujo fluff and KYAAAAAs and awkward confessions of the sort.

"Yo," Matsukawa replied uncertainly, and if Hanamaki's internal shriek had been legitimately screeched out Tardar Sauce would probably have been able to hear it all the way from Morristown in Arizona. He was sweating so much that the collar of his shirt was actually slightly damp now, and the prospect of possibly never getting to hear Matsukawa say "yo" as casually as he did after this year plagued his mind.

"I - I think you're the coldest - wait, fuck -  _hottest_  hunk of - of - meme tr - "

"Makki, why the  _fuck_ do you sound like some shoujo heroine about to confess to her crush?"

 _Because I_ am  _about to confess to you, assfucker_ , he mentally screeched. Taking a deep breath and repeating the words  _peace, quiet, tranquility_ in his brain, he cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

"Ithinkyou'rehotasballsandI'mgayforyouandnotOikawaeventhoughwe'renotsoulmatesbutIhaven'tnicelytoldhimI'mnotgayforhimbutforyoueventhoughwe'resoulmatesyet - "

"Makki,  _chill_. No one knows what the fuck you say when you go on a roll."

"I - " Hanamaki took another deep breath. "I think you're hot - as balls and I'm gay for you and not Oikawa even though we're not soulmates - but I haven't nicely told him I'm not gay for him but for you even though we're soulmates yet. There."

Hanamaki was blissfully thankful that there was no one around to witness this embarrassing scene. He felt stupid, shameful and like the biggest prat in the whole entire world, even more so than the time when he had accidentally sat on a pile of chocolate, stained his snow white trousers and had to walk into class with his sister's pink spotted jacket tied around his waist because he didn't want anyone to think he had shat his pants. At this moment, he didn't know which was pinker: his hair, or his face. He scrutinised the floor with keen interest, intent on avoiding Matsukawa's gaze as the latter processed what the former had just said.

And then from above him, he heard Matsukawa snort, prompting him to venture a glance up. Matsukawa was trying to stifle a smile on his face, but was evidently doing a bad job of it. Hanamaki turned even pinker, mortified that Matsukawa was laughing at him. That was it. Twelve months of their brolationship all gone down the drain along with Hanamaki's fifteen-and-three-quarter life and dreams and hopes within the span of thirty seconds.

"You know right," Matsukawa's voice warbled, and Hanamaki shut his eyes, biting his bottom lip. "For someone so adamant in deciding their own future, you take a fucking long time to confess."

“Look, if you're going to reject me, just reject me. We can forget about this whole fucking thing and just go back to being normal bros." Hanamaki straightened up and half-turned, contemplating whether to be inconsiderable and cowardly and leave, or be a man and stay to hear our the rejection but probably cry in his room later.

"Who ever said I was going to reject you?"

Hanamaki immediately swivelled back so that his entire body faced Matsukawa. The latter’s bushy eyebrows were raised slightly, and he was rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Uh...my instinct?"

"Makki, babe, we all know you have the shittiest instinct outside of volleyball," he continued in a voice that reeked of what seemed like a cross between memeness and affection. "I'm actually hurt that you thought I was going to reject you when I've been lowkey hinting the whole year that I'm just as gay for you as you are for me."

Hold the fuck up. Hanamaki had thought up a trillion different comebacks for a trillion different scenarios in which he would be brutally, savagely burned, roasted and rejected; he had not, however, come up with a reply for the one highly improbable situation in which he was  _not_ rejected.

"Come - come again?" he responded feebly after what seemed like the five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand-six-hundredth minute.

"What the  _fuck_." Matsukawa wrung his hands and groaned very loudly, and Hanamaki mentally thought  _same_. "The whole fucking school knows I've been hitting on you for, like, five months. I'm so appalled at your denseness I'm almost unattracted to you."

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Hanamaki said, holding both his hands up and waving them about. "You just called me _babe_. You’ve never called me babe before. So does that mean you like me back too or are you using it in the casual friend conte – “

“Fuck this shit,” Matsukawa interrupted, grabbing Hanamaki by the shoulders and slamming his lips over Hanamaki’s. Taken aback, the pink-haired boy emitted a muffled squawk, his eyes wide and cross-eyed as Matsukawa remained in that position for several seconds.

“There,” he said when he pulled back, “you insecure trashy memer, _that’s_ my response. I’ve been super mega fucking gay for you and I’ve wanted to kiss you so badly ever since that day when we met with your stupid custard cream running down your mouth and I wanted to wipe it off with my mouth for you. This is the worst way possible to confess to you, but – wait holy shit are you crying?”

Hanamaki _was_ crying, his green eyes shining with tears as they dribbled down the corners of his eyes. His bottom lip was jutted out as he attempted to stop the tears from running down. Gods did he feel like such a loser.

“You piece of shit,” he croaked, “you fucking piece of shit, who do you think you are running round leaving – “

“Don’t quote Jar of Hearts for fuck’s sake, Makki, I’m trying to be romantic here. Why – why are you even crying?”

“Because I’m _happy_ you assfucker!” Hanamaki literally shrieked, dragging Matsukawa forward and practically strangling him in a bear hug. “It’s one thing not to follow the red string theory, another to fall in love with someone not your soulmate, and a third for them to reciprocate your feelings! And I’m a lovestruck shoujo loser who has every right to be happy that the dankest, shittiest, memest hunk of hotness in the world reciprocates _my_ feelings!” He felt exceedingly embarrassed at how vulnerable he seemed at the moment. This was probably the shittiest, most awkward, most vulgar confession in the world – but he didn’t care, because Matsukawa liked him back, and that was it.

Matsukawa’s arms went around Hanamaki’s and squeezed him back just as hard.

“I love you Takahiro,” he mumbled into Hanamaki’s hair, “Homo intended.” He kissed the top of Hanamaki’s head, and Hanamaki turned even pinker hearing Matsukawa use his first name.

“I – love you too – Issei,” he finally murmured back. “Homo intended.”

They remained in that position for several minutes more, just standing and engulfing each in the other's warmth, and by the time they finally broke apart to kiss for the second time, Hanamaki had stopped crying.

* * *

Hanamaki never believed in the red string theory.

Yes, he was aware that his parents were soulmates and had known ever since childhood that they were destined to be lovers and partners for life, and that his older sister was going six years strong with her soulmate. Everywhere he went he saw soulmates walking hand in hand with a thread of faintly-glowing red fabric (was it fabric? it looked so intangibly real) hanging from their interlocked pinkies and PDAing in public, and he knew plenty of his friends who had already established relationships with their soulmates.

But they were all just coincidences; fortunate coincidences, as he liked to say. Hanamaki was a realist; he didn't believe in destiny and predetermined fate and all that shilly-shallying nonsensical romantic unsupported theories. He believed that a man's destiny lay in his own hands and that it was totally up to the person to decide how they wanted their life to play out, and didn't think at all that the red strings controlled who one as to marry. While there were many soulmate couples he had seen, he did have a couple of friends whose relationships with their respective soulmates hadn't ended too well; as such, Hanamaki upheld his stance, which he had firmly stuck to ever since he was a child, that anyone in a relationship didn't necessarily have to be soulmates for the best relationship.

So when he and Matsukawa walked home hand-in-hand on the last day of the first year after a last-minute cafe-hopping spree, talking about memes and shamelessly flirting with each other, and Matsukawa dropped Hanamaki off at his gate with a quick peck on the lips and a promise to bring him to Akihabara the day after for a date, Hanamaki's family suddenly developed a keen interest in the bushy-eyebrowed, lanky youth who had just pecked their Makki-chan on the lips and who certainly didn't have a red string attached to his pinky finger connecting it with Hanamaki's. Of course, they had known he was pansexual and proud since the day he had come out to them and were totally chill with it, so Matsukawa's gender wasn't an issue at all; the only fault they could find was that he wasn't - well, they weren't soulmates.

"For the last time, Tomo," Hanamaki said exasperatedly, practically shoving his older sister off him, "you know I don't believe in the red string theory, you insufferable prat. It's my life, not yours; I can decide whoever the fuck I'll date and whoever the fuck's the best one for me. You don't  _have_ to be soulmates to have the best relationship."

"He called me an insufferable prat!" Tomochika gasped, placing a hand dramatically over her chest and feigning horror. "After  _all_ these years together - "

"Don't be so melondramatic," he replied unsympathetically, tipping the plate of coconut slices onto her own and eliciting a squawk from her. 

"I don't know which is worse, the pun, the fact that you just shoved a whole hoard of coconut onto my plate, or your calling the coconut a melon," she muttered, shutting up as she begrudgingly picked at the mountain of coconut slices before her.

Tomochika's reaction was the least of his worries, however; in fact, it wasn't even a worry at all, now that Hanamaki was faced with the prospect of quite possibly having to deal with Oikawa's even more melondramatic laments at the point of rejection. However, he didn't get to see Oikawa during the week-long holidays before their second year began, since the latter was preoccupied with helping out as a part-time assistant volleyball coach at  _Lil Tykes Volleyball Classroom_. Iwaizumi had gone to visit his grandparents in the countryside, so Hanamaki didn't get to see any of his other two best friends. He didn't want to mess up his confession to Oikawa like he had with Matsukawa, so he decided to tell him in person (as he had before) and even typed out a script and memorised it over the holidays; he was still reciting it as he and Matsukawa walked to school on the first day of the second year.

"For heavens' sake, Hiro, you've chanted that fucking script enough already," Matsukawa said exasperatedly. "If you typed that bloody thing out the number of times you'd said it font size 0.000001, it'd be taller than me."

"I'm not messing this one up, Issei," his boyfriend answered stubbornly, rolling his eyes to heaven and counting off his fingers. "Even if I don't like Oikawa that way, he's still one of my best friends and I don't want him to misunderstand."

"Misunderstand what?"

"Fuck," Hanamaki said.

"Fuck what?" Oikawa asked curiously, trailing along beside Hanamaki. "Who'd want to fuck  _you_ , Makki-chan?"

"Me," Matsukawa deadpanned, and Oikawa snorted.

"Well of course, you're the school OTP - "

"No, like, for real," Hanamaki cut in, and the shit-eating grin wiped itself off Oikawa's face.

"Wait - for real? As in, you guys are legitimately - a thing?"

Hanamaki sighed. He had an extraordinarily good feeling that this was  _not_ going to go the way he had envisioned it in his mind. But Matsukawa held up his hand, entwined with Hanamaki's.

"Canon since the last day of first year."

Oikawa's eye flickered between Matsukawa's and Hanamaki's equally-serious faces, and then another, even wider shit-eating grin broke out across his face.

"I knew it!" he shrieked, catching the attention of several other students. "You two are  _canon!_ You're so gay for each other!"

Hanamaki looked at Matsukawa, baffled.

"You knew?" he queried feebly.

"You're the  _fucking school OTP_ , everyone knew you'd get together sooner or later," Oikawa explained breezily. "I bet Mattsun confessed first, didn't he? He'd been bugging me about it the whole of term 3 - "

"Actually, Hiro confessed first," Matsukawa admitted, the tips of his ears slightly red. "I said the three words first though, if that counts."

"Hope you aren't, uh, angry about it," Hanamaki said somewhat hesitantly, "I mean - I'm gay for Issei and not for you even though  _we're_ soulmates. And, well, 99.7% of society believes in the red string theory - "

"Such a specific number," Matsukawa chipped in. "Sakurai-sensei would be proud, you rounded off to 3 significant figures - "

Oikawa shook his head vigorously.

"Makki-chan, we may be soulmates but - that doesn't mean we've  _got_ to be together," he said in a reassuring voice. His smile was genuine as he placed his hands on both Matsukawa's and Hanamaki's shoulders. "I'm honestly very, very happy for the two of you."

"But you were so -  _touchy_ with me. I was ready to slap you the next time you shoved your face in mine."

"I'm touchy with  _everyone_ ," Oikawa protested. "If it bothers you, I'll back off. Wouldn't want your dear Issei-kun kicking me up into space to be taken hostage by the Galactic Empire - as appealing as that sounds. And besides - I'm just as gay for Iwa-chan as you are for each other.

Hold the fuck up. Hanamaki had thought up a trillion different comebacks for a trillion different scenarios in handling a sobbing, extremely melodramatic Oikawa Tooru; he had not, however, expected for Oikawa to rub the back of his neck and blush lightly, looking down at the floor sheepishly (was he even capable of experiencing shame?).

"So - so you don't believe in the red string theory either?" he confirmed, and Oikawa's smile widened.

"Absolutely not," he double-confirmed.

At this, Hanamaki's spirits soared. Oikawa didn't like-like him, he was free to date Matsukawa, and his OTP was semi-canon - at least on Oikawa's part. He would have dropped to his knees and cried if he could, but he was a man of pride and he would not shed tears over such a trivial matter.

"There's one more thing I've got to settle with the two of you, though." Oikawa's face suddenly got all serious, and Hanamaki's spirits plonked back down to where it had been lying on the cold hard ground. "This is a matter of life and death, the one question that determines the fate of my New Year money and life savings."

"Uh, sure," Matsukawa said confusedly, squeezing Hanamaki's hand gently as he sensed his partner's apprehension.

"...who tops?"

Hanamaki facewalled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're confused at the ending, basically Oikawa and Iwaizumi made a bet over who would top if Matsukawa and Hanamaki were together; Oikawa on Hanamaki, Iwaizumi on Matsukawa. 
> 
> And for IwaOi shippers (which is probably the majority of you, I assume?), Iwaizumi reciprocates Oikawa's feelings.
> 
> So there you have it! The story is now complete, and I hope you enjoyed it :) If you have any prompts or any comments whatsoever, feel free to leave it in the comments!
> 
> \- kogimika53


	4. Not an update, just an inquiry

Hey guys, it's been not a long while but still a while. First off, thank you so much for all your support on TRST; I honestly hadn't expected it to become  _this_ popular given the relative obscurity and lack of hits on my previous works, but I'm really glad you all enjoyed it! Writing TRST and maintaining standards while updating chapters was tough but it was all worth it because it was absolutely brilliant and funny and I managed to entertain (as of today) 417 readers on ao3, and words cannot express how grateful I am to all of you for having clicked on this fic and read it.

This brings me to my next point: I've been considering starting a series on TRST, revolving around other ships, be it from the Haikyuu fandom, or outside! If I were to write more fics in this series (should it become a series), would you be willing to read them? I'm open to Haikyuu ship requests, though if it's from other fandoms I may not be able to write all of them if they are from animes I haven't watched before.

Alternatively, I could start a series chronicling Mattsun and Makki's life together (feat. Iwaoi again HAHA) but, as aforementioned, it's really up to the readers and I'm completely fine with anything you guys want :) so how about that? To be honest I'm not sure how many people will actually read this but if you would like for me to make this a series, or you have any requests please leave them in the comments below!

Once again, thank you so much for all your support!

\- kogimika53

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like it's been so long since I contributed to the Haikyuu fandom because I've been so invested in school + binging Touken Ranbu and Yuri on Ice so if I've made any mistakes do excuse them and let me know in the comments. I can't say when exactly I'll post the next chapter, but I'll do my best to update by the weekend if possible. Thank you, and hope you enjoyed reading this :)  
> \- kogimika53

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Yellow String Theory](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11255004) by [kogimika53](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kogimika53/pseuds/kogimika53)




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